Japan's jobless rate has risen to a record, but other barometers show its economy could be on the way to getting on its feet again. Analysts said the mixed bag of data released Tuesday shows that although the economy has been moving in the direction of recovery, it may take some time to actually achieve it.

In the 1980s, the notoriously hard-working Japanese coined a term to describe workers who die suddenly after putting in extremely long hours. The word is "karoshi," or death from overwork. Japan has a new word for the '90s: "karojisatsu," suicides from overwork. Spurred by an economic slide throughout the decade, the number of such suicides has swelled to an estimated 1,000 or more a year, according to a group of lawyers involved in lawsuits over work-related deaths.

In the 1980s, the notoriously hard-working Japanese coined a term to describe workers who die suddenly after putting in extremely long hours. The word is "karoshi," or death from overwork. Japan has a new word for the '90s: "karojisatsu," suicides from overwork. Spurred by an economic slide throughout the decade, the number of such suicides has swelled to an estimated 1,000 or more a year, according to a group of lawyers involved in lawsuits over work-related deaths.

Japan's jobless rate has risen to a record, but other barometers show its economy could be on the way to getting on its feet again. Analysts said the mixed bag of data released Tuesday shows that although the economy has been moving in the direction of recovery, it may take some time to actually achieve it.

In a new assault on Japan's slowly eroding system of lifetime employment, Toyota Motor Corp. says it will begin hiring experienced automotive designers on a contract basis. Previously, such work has been done by permanent employees hired after college graduation who worked their way up in the company. But the new employees--who may be of any age and nationality--will be hired on the basis of experience and offered merit-based rather than seniority-based pay increases.

Japan Moves Against Sexism in Workplace: The Labor Ministry has directed hundreds of companies to abandon discriminatory practices against women. After two years of investigating financial institutions and broadcast stations, the ministry discovered "inequality" between men and women in the workplace. Of 655 companies investigated, 264 financial institutions and 51 broadcast stations were found to violate Japan's equal employment law.

In a sign that Japan's lifetime employment system is fraying under the pressures of recession, a major electronics manufacturer said Friday that it has told 35 managers to retire early or be fired. Kazuya Yamamoto, a spokesman for Pioneer Electronic Corp., said the managers were asked to quit before their retirement age of 60. If they refused, they would be fired by the end of this month. "Some of these older employees used to work very hard," Yamamoto said.

Japan should strengthen its equal-employment law by banning firms from selectively hiring men over women and easing restrictions on women's overtime and late-night work, a Labor Ministry committee said Monday. The recommendations tackle the most visible signs here of sexist employment practices, which have become even more conspicuous during the recession. In an effort to cut costs, many firms have drastically scaled back new hiring--in large part by cutting back on female workers.

Officials from the leading industrial democracies completed their first jobs conference Tuesday, agreeing on the need to improve education, training and worker skills to combat unemployment but failing to bridge a crucial gap between the United States and Europe.

Whatever happened to Japan? A few years ago Japanese industry was seen as an unbeatable combination of the Dallas Cowboys and Godzilla, ready to trounce all before it in international competition. Today, Japanese industry is humbled by a long-slumping economy that will probably have zero growth this year. Japan's banks are crippled by an incredible, $200-billion mountain of bad loans to industry and real estate.

In a new assault on Japan's slowly eroding system of lifetime employment, Toyota Motor Corp. says it will begin hiring experienced automotive designers on a contract basis. Previously, such work has been done by permanent employees hired after college graduation who worked their way up in the company. But the new employees--who may be of any age and nationality--will be hired on the basis of experience and offered merit-based rather than seniority-based pay increases.

Nineteen years ago, when Texas Instruments was forming a Japanese subsidiary, it placed help-wanted ads in the large daily newspapers here, hoping to recruit experienced engineers. It got no takers. The thudding silence was a shock to the Dallas firm. Texas Instruments was respected, and the working conditions it offered were comparable, even better, and the pay usually higher than at Japanese firms.

While Honda, Sony and other blue-chip Japanese exporters prosper under today's cheap yen, the country's economic predicament seems stacked against the heart of its economy--the small and medium-sized companies that employ two-thirds of Japan's nonfarm workers. Entrepreneurs like Norimichi Suzuki often are overlooked in the talk about Japan's seeming powerlessness to pull the rest of Asia out of its tailspin.